Author: The Carolinian

NEW YORK (AP) - The signs of hip-hop's influence are everywhere - from Pharrell Williams becoming Louis Vuitton's men's creative director to billion-dollar brands like Dr. Dre's Beats headphones and retail mainstays like Diddy's Sean John and Jay-Z's Rocawear. It didn't start out that way. The music genre germinated 50 years ago as an escape from the poverty and violence of New York City's most distressed borough, the Bronx, where

BY JESSE BEDAYN Bobbie Boyd is in a losing battle against near triple-digit temperatures in northwest Arkansas. Her window air conditioner runs nonstop and the ballooning electric bill carves about $240 out of her $882-a-month fixed income. So the 57-year-old cuts other necessities. Boyd eats one meal a day so her 15-year-old grandson, who she's raising alone, can have two. She stopped paying car insurance and skips medical appointments. "The rent

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON Here we go again: COVID-19 hospital admissions have inched upward in the United States since early July in a small-scale echo of the three previous summers. With an updated vaccine still months away, this summer bump in new hospitalizations might be concerning, but the number of patients is far lower than before. A look at what we know: HOW BAD IS THE SPIKE? For the week ending

BY AARON BEARD North Carolina coach Mack Brown said Tuesday the school is appealing to the NCAA for immediate eligibility for transfer Devontez Walker, the Tar Heels' presumed No. 1 receiver whose status is in question weeks before the opener. The NCAA denied the waiver for Walker to play immediately after his transfer from Kent State, where he played two seasons. NCAA rules generally allow players to transfer freely once, but

SEATTLE (AP) - Five people affiliated with white nationalist hate group Patriot Front are suing a Seattle-area man who they say infiltrated the group and disclosed their identities online, leading them to lose their jobs and face harassment. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Western Washington, The Seattle Times reported on Tuesday. The suit accuses David Capito, 37, also known as Vyacheslav Arkhangelskiy, of using a false

BY ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Special counsel Jack Smith's team obtained a search warrant in January for records related to former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, and a judge levied a $350,000 fine on the company for missing the deadline to comply, according to court documents released Wednesday. The new details were included in a ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington over a legal battle surrounding the warrant that has

BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN Waves of severe thunderstorms in the U.S. during the first half of this year led to $34 billion in insured losses, an unprecedented level of financial damage in such a short time, according to Swiss Re Group, as climate change contributes to the frequency and severity of violent meteorological events. Damages from convective storms in the U.S., those that can come with hail, lightning, heavy rain, and high

BY BRENDAN FARRINGTON AND FREIDA FRISARO TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday suspended the top prosecutor in Orlando, wielding his executive again power over local government in taking on a contentious issue in the 2024 presidential race. It's the second time DeSantis, a Republican, has removed a Democratic state attorney and follows an investigation that began when a teenager was charged with fatally shooting a television reporter

BY KIM CHANDLER MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Three white boaters in Alabama's capital city will be charged with misdemeanor assault for a riverfront brawl with a Black boat captain that drew nationwide attention, with more charges likely to come, police said. Videos of the incident, which circulated widely on social media, have proven crucial in investigating what happened, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said. One person has turned himself in and

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE AND HOLLY RAMER WINDHAM, N.H. (AP) - Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up his attacks on special counsel Jack Smith and vowed to continue talking about his criminal cases even as prosecutors sought a protective order to limit the evidence that Trump and his team could share. In the early-voting state of New Hampshire, Trump assailed Smith as a "thug prosecutor" and a "deranged guy"